Bridgeport under (make-believe) siege

Published 7:26 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

BRIDGEPORT -- It was as if the city was under siege.

That's how one police officer described the scene Saturday afternoon at the former Remington Arms factory building off Barnum Avenue.

There, on the property, a helicopter had landed amid numerous troops dressed in military-style uniforms and carrying -- what appeared to be -- assault weapons. Some of the soldiers were perched on building tops, others on ground level.

But as police learned, it was only make-believe.

On Saturday, movie producer and Fairfield University film student Robert Cammisa, of Seymour, and his crew were filming scenes for his latest project. According to Cammisa's Web site -- www.companionpictures.com -- that film is "Echo 49," a film set in the future during a war that engulfs Earth.

According to the report filed by police officers Todd Sherback and Jason Ferri, the pair was on Grant Street at about 3:30 p.m. when they observed a helicopter taking off and making "numerous low altitude circles directly above our heads" before landing again inside the factory yard.

When the officers saw that several people on the property were operating cameras, and apparently filming the exercise, they requested a supervisor be dispatched.

By this time the officers reported that Grant Street, between Helen Street and Seaview Avenue, was virtually impassable as motorists and neighborhood residents rushed to the scene to check out the activity.

When Sgt. Manuel Cotto arrived, the officers traveled to the Barnum Avenue side of property, where they entered the lot and met with Cammisa, who told police that he had permission to shoot on the property and had received the requisite city permits to do so.

But since Cammisa could not immediately produce the permits, police ordered that production be halted. Cammisa "understood and cooperated fully," the officers wrote.

When contacted on Sunday on his cell phone, the 21-year-old Cammisa said that he did not have time to elaborate on Saturday's event.

But he did say that, as for the helicopter, it and the pilot were donated for a few hours by a friend's father, who flies helicopters in movies professionally.

As for the permits, Cammisa said it was "all a misunderstanding."

"We actually did have the permits; it's just that we didn't have them on site. But I really have to go, we're in the middle of shooting," he said before hanging up.